Test Scores Loom Over School-to-Work Programs

Advocates of urban school-to-work programs heard a sobering message
at a recent conference held here by the Department of Education.

No matter how innovative the programs may be, they won't get much
respect unless they help students score higher on standardized tests,
said Patricia W. McNeil, the assistant secretary for the department's
office of vocational and adult education.

Ms. McNeil's conclusion came out of her experience with the New
Urban High Schools grant program, sponsored by her office. The program
awarded $30,000 to each of five schools last year, and last month's
conference was designed to showcase the schools' successes to the 400
urban educators who attended.

From the department's point of view, the schools are models partly
because they successfully used school-to-work principles to bring about
reform. School-to-work strategies include integrating academic and
vocational education, placing students in internships, and increasing
links between secondary schools and postsecondary schools.

Yet at least two of the New Urban High Schools are not considered
models in their own communities.

"I thought, somewhat naively, if we showcased these schools, people
would say, 'Wow, this is great. Let me find out about these schools,
and make more like them,'" Ms. McNeil said.

But that was not the case, and the reason was poor student test
scores, she said.

"The problem we're facing is that the most efficient--if not
effective--instrument that most communities have for measuring success
is the standardized tests," the assistant secretary said.

One of the New Urban High Schools, 1,865-student Herbert Hoover High
School in San Diego, was named last year as one of the 20
lowest-performing schools in the 170-school San Diego district, partly
because of poor performance on standardized tests.

Another of the selected schools, the Chicago Vocational Career
Academy, is considered a "remediation school"--a step away from being
on probation--by the 430,000-student Chicago district and a
low-performing school by the Illinois state board of education.

Central Park East Secondary School in New York City, St. Louis
Career Academy in St. Louis, and William H. Turner Technical Arts High
School in Miami are the other New Urban High Schools.

Advised Ms. McNeil in her speech: "We've got to combine rigor and
some kinds of accountability standards to show that what we're doing is
not just being nice to these kids and providing a nurturing environment
and a little bit of work experience."

Another speaker at the June 25-27 conference pointed to a new study
as evidence that school-to-work strategies are successful.

The study shows that graduates of ProTech, a school-to-work program
in the Boston public schools, were more likely to attend college, earn
a degree, and receive higher wages than graduates who did not
participate in the program.

"Young people who have well-structured experiences in the work world
... are entering postsecondary [schools] at higher rates," said Larry
Rosenstock, the former project director for the New Urban High Schools
program. He is now the president of Price Charities in La Jolla,
Calif.

ProTech has served a total of 650 students from six schools since
its creation in 1991. Participating students acquire 11 competencies
through in-school and work-site learning. Those include the ability to
communicate and understand information, and to identify and solve
problems.

The study compares survey responses from 107 ProTech graduates with
responses from 124 Boston high school graduates who weren't part of the
program.

Some 78 percent of ProTech graduates attended college the year after
finishing high school, compared with 72 percent in the comparison
group, according to the survey. In addition, the average hourly wage of
the ProTech graduates was 82 cents higher than for non-ProTech
graduates.

The study's results were particularly striking for black students.
Seventy-nine percent of black ProTech graduates attended college right
after high school, compared with 53 percent of black students in the
comparison group. Nationally, 51 percent of black students attend
college right out of high school.

The study was produced by the Boston Private Industry Council and
Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit group based in Boston.

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